Marichedutha Appam (Rice pancakes 1)

These are ver simple and delicious pancakes made of rice to go with many curries including Chicken curry, fish curry, prawn curry, prawn varattiyathu etc….And having a sweet tooth, I have it with sugar! I like it that way. I use to have this at home when my mom makes it for us either for breakfast or dinner. I am surprised that I never made them even once. I just forgot about it. Two days back when I was thinking what to make for dinner, Marichedutha Appam just popped into my mind out of blue, and since I had lots of leftover rice in the freezer I made them. My mom makes different kinds of stuffs like Ottil pollicha appam, mutta ssurkki, thenga pathal, kalthappam etc..out of the same batter. They are made with slight difference and yet taste so different. I think this name might be very new to many people as it is used colloquially in our place.

Marichedutha Appam
Serves 2-3

Ingredients:1½ cup raw rice (Pachari)
2 cups cooked rice
1 medium onion
3 cups water
salt as required
oil- as required

Preparation
1.Soak rice in water for a minimum of 1 hour.
2.Grind it along with coked rice and onion until very smooth and no grains of rice can be felt when you touch it.
3. Add enough salt and mix well. When u taste the batter, you must feel it a bit salty but again not too salty.
4. Heat a frying pan at high heat, add 2 tbs of oil and pour 2-3 ladleful of batter (1-1 ½ cups of batter) and just wobble the pan a little to spread the batter evenly.
5. Cover with a lid and cook until the bottom side is cooked and you can see golden patches here and there. The top part will be just getting set. At this stage, using a spatula, flip over the marichedutha appam. If you see that its breaking, and is difficult to turn, close the lid and wait for some more time until you can turn the appam easily. Cook the other side also in the same way until you get golden patches here and there. Keep turning a couple of time to ensure that it is fully cooked and edge is crispy. It takes a bit of time. May be 4-6 minutes to get one cooked.
6. Continue the same process with the rest of batter until all batter is used up.
Serve hot with its best combination King prawn varattiyathu, or even simple chicken curry or fish curry.

Notes1. I used 26” pan to make this. If you are using a larger pan, pour more batter.
2. My mom used to add half the amount of cooked rice to the raw rice. But she uses cooked long grain rice. I tried using the same amount with the cooked basmati rice, but my appams turn out very hard. So I increased the amount of cooked rice.
3. Even if it is cooked, the rice inside will be a bit sticky. It will get set once it is cooled.
4. The thinner version of marichedutha appam which uses only one ladle of batter and just a drop of oil or no oil is ottil pollichahu. But it tastes different and ofcourse takes longer than marichedutha appam

Chocolate Coated Brazil nuts

I don’t really know how I came up with making these chocolate coated Brazil nuts. That particular day I had bad craving for sweets and all I could see was some cooking chocolates in the cabinet that I bought in bulk the other day when there was a huge price drop. Since the chocolate was 72% cocoa containing dark chocolate, it was bitter rather than sweet. These chocolates will make an excellent frosting for cakes or a ganache. Then I started thinking of making something out of it that as easy as 1-2-3 and requires minimum amount of time. First I thought of making chocolate mousse, but again the thought of whipping up the egg made me lazy. Then I spotted some brazil nuts in the same cup-board and suddenly it clicked me to make my favourite chocolate, i.e. Chocolate coated Brazil nuts. I normally buy milk chocolate coated Brazil nuts to which I’m very much addicted to. Once I start eating them, somebody has to handcuff me to stop eating them. I used to have a bag of these chocolates containing around 24-26 chocolates. Ya, it was SEK who counted them one day. One day when we were going to London for our visa purpose, I grabbed a bag of Brazil chocolates and slipped it into my pocket so that I can eat them all the way to London which was 2 hour train journey. SEK saw me putting something into my pocket and asked me what it was. I told him it was Brazil nut chocolates. Knowing me very well and my chocolate greediness, he told me not to eat more than 2 pieces from it. I told him that’s too less. He then miserly increased the number to 4. I told him I am not going to stop by eating 4 and that’s too less. He then started counting the chocolates and warned me not to eat more than 4.

We then set off for London and I started nibbling on chocolate very slowly like a toothless child. When I had around four of them, SEK grabbed the bag and kept it in his hand. And after sometime he slept off with the bag of chocolate loosely held in his hand. I slowly started twisting my two fingers into the bag to get hold on another piece and started munching it. Later when SEK was in deep sleep, I took the bag from him slowly and kept on munching the whole journey. SEK had completely forgotten about the chocolates by then. When we reached home, SEK asked me, “Where is the chocolate bag?”. I replied by saying “You had taken it from the train and you dint give it back” and I just smiled. SEK out of astonishment asked me “You ate them all, didn’t you?!....Yes, I had a bag of chocolates in half a day. After that day, I purposely avoid getting them. I find it that addictive!

Chocolate Coated Brazil nuts

Serves : Depends on the person.

Ingredients: (Appx)
75 gm Milk chocolate
10-15 brazil nuts.

Method:
1. Break chocolate into small pieces. Microwave them for few seconds until the chocolate is completely melted. This doesn’t take very long. But if kept for longer time, chocolate will get burnt. Chocolate can also be melted by Bain Marie method.
2. Add Brazil nuts to this chocolate one at a time and roll over until all sides are coated with chocolate. Pick it up with a fork and place it on a baking paper. Continue with the rest of the nuts and pour the remaining melted chocolate on the nuts slowly.

3. Place the chocolates in freezer for around 10 minutes or until the chocolate is completely set. Peel off the chocolates from the baking paper and Start munching.

Notes:
1. If you are using dark chocolate add 1 tbs of icing sugar along with chocolate while melting it.

2. If you dont have baking paper, lighly oil an aluminium foil and place chocolates on them.

Thalassery Mutton Dum Biryani

Biryani is the most common festive dish in Kerala Muslim society. Apart from that many will be familiar with this exotic dish by hearing from somewhere and somehow. I remember my mom saying that during past, that is quite long ago; during the time of my parents wedding, the main course used to be Ghee rice along with chicken curry in the afternoon and some home made snacks in the morning. I don’t remember the names of snack that my mom mentioned, but I will update on that once I get to talk to her about it. Until 6-7 years back, Biryani used to be the only main course for any Muslim wedding accompanied by Alisa, raita, pickles and if it goes a bit more posh, chicken fry as well. Nowadays the marriages are even getting more lavish with many varieties of food apart from Biryani and Alisa including Naan, battura, fried rice, different curries, like chicken chilly, mutton Korma, vegetable korma etc, salads, fruits and not to be missed- different kinds of desserts like the ever famous muttamaala that is made of Duck eggs with a steamed pudding made mainly of egg whites and sugar and then strands of egg yolks cooked in sugar syrup sprinkled on top of it., Ilaneer pudding, semiya payasam and many others. The only thing you need to have while attending the wedding these days is an extra tummy or starving the day before the wedding to at least taste everything.

Again, the taste of Biryani differs from home to home. I have had Biryani from different relatives of mine and each time I have them, they have a different taste. This is my mom’s version of Mutton Dum Biryani and it tastes real good. Chicken Biryani can also be prepared in the same way.

Thalassery Mutton Dum BiryaniServes 6-8 hungry people

For Ghee rice:4 cups Basmati rice
6 cups water
1 cup onion sliced (1 medium size onion)
1 tsp cumin seeds
6 cardamom pods
6-8 cloves
5-6 small pieces of cinnamon sticks
3 bay leaves
½ cup clarified butter (Ghee)
Salt to taste

For Biryani masala:
1 ¼ kg of mutton
4 cups chopped onion (4 medium-large onions)
3 ½ tbsful freshly crushed garlic (15 cloves)
3 tbs freshly crushed ginger (4")
1 ½ cup chopped tomatoes (4 medium size tomatoes)
10-15 Green chillies (depending on pungency)
1 tsp pepper powder
½ cup Chopped Coriander leaves
¼ cup Fresh mint leaves chopped
2 tsp lime juice
2 tbs curd
½ tsp garam masala + extra to sprinkle on rice while layering.
Oil – 3-4 tbs
Salt as required

Step by step guide to prepare Dum Biryani:Method to prepare Biryani masala:

1. Wash mutton well, pat dry with a kitchen towel and keep aside.

2. Add ginger, garlic and chillies together in the processor and crush it well.

3. Slice and chop onions into further small pieces.

4. Heat a Large vessel and add oil. Sauté chopped ginger, garlic, chillies and onions along with salt until the onions become translucent.

5. Add chopped tomatoes. When the tomatoes starts to soften, add mutton, pepper powder and cook until almost done. This can be pressure cooked as well. After the mutton is cooked, if there is lot of gravy in the pot, make sure you boil them off to get a thick gravy.

6. Add lime juice and chopped coriander and mint leaves. When the meat is completely cooked, Add curd and stir well. Don’t boil. Add garam masala and close lid to infuse in the flavour.

Method to prepare Ghee rice:

1. Wash rice and strain off all the excess water by placing the rice in colander.

2. Boil water in the kettle or a large cooking vessel.

3. In another large pan, set the heat on to high and add ghee. When the ghee gets hot add onions and sauté until the onions just starts turning pink. At this stage add cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon and cumin seeds and sauté for a minute until the aroma of the spices starts coming out. Add the required amount of boiling water and salt to this.

4. Tip in the rice slowly and cook on high heat by keeping the lid open. When almost all the water has evaporated (you must be able to see the bottom of the pan with no water ), close the lid tightly and let it cook for around 6-10 minutes depending on the rice, or may be more. In between you can toss the bottom part of rice and bring to top so that the rice gets cooked evenly. Once the rice is completely cooked, fluff it using a fork or a large spatula carefully without breaking up the rice. While the rice is still hot, do the assembling.

For layering the biryani and final cooking:

1. Divide the rice in three parts and Biriyani masala in 2 parts.

2. Take a large heavy base vessel and rub it with oil or ghee. Layer the bottom of the vessel with the first part of the rice. Sprinkle a good pinch of garam masala all over and pour first part of biryani masala along with meat all over the rice. Tip in the second part of rice and sprinkle a good pinch of garam masala all over again. Pour the second part of Biryani masala on top of the rice and put the last part of rice and sprinkle all over with garam masala again. So now you have layers of rice and masala that’s goes like this: rice, Biryani masala, rice, Biryani masala and again rice.

3. Cover the entire vessel with foil (to ensure that full steam stays in), then close the lid tightly. Place a weight (you can also use any vessel filled with water for this) over this vessels and cook on hob top for about 20 minutes at very low heat. This is to infuse the flavour of the biryani masala into the rice and this process of cooking is called ‘Dum’. At this point of time u can see that all rice on top has curved up.

4. You can also do the layering in an ovenproof vessel and place it in a preheated oven at a very low temperature for about 20-30 minutes for the final cooking. I never tried this, but my friends do it this way.

Just before serving, garnish with fried onions, cashews and raisins. Enjoy with Cucumber Raita, tomato and onion salad, Coconut chutney, pickle and pappadams!

Important Notes and tips:
For Biryani:Always remember: Cook Biryani masala before cooking rice. Never cook rice before masala. You can always prepare the Biryani masala a day ahead and later on use it whenever you need them also.

For Biryani masala:
The most important thing to be noted is that there should be only minimal water in the Biryani masala. The masala should be quite thick. Else during dum, the rice will absorb so much of water and will be over cooked and mushy. Since the mutton and onions release lot of water by the end of cooking, there will be lot of moisture in the masala. Turn the heat up and dry off the excess water until you get thick gravy. Take care to stir in between else it might get burnt.

For Ghee rice:
1. Never wait until the onions get brown or golden as this will change the colour of rice completely. You will get a golden rice rather than usual white.

2. Flame adjustment is very necessary while cooking rice. Keep the flame/heat high until u see all the rice has come on top and water has gone down but still the rice is not cooked. At this stage lower the flame and cook until done.

3. If you carefully notice, you can see that I have used less water for ghee rice for Biryani than the normal ghee rice. Since Biryani masala will be having some moisture, the rice will absorb it evenly. If you use more water than stated, again, the rice will go soggy.

Ghee Rice (Neychor)

This is an easy Malabar festive food that’s made especially when guests come home with quick notice or even for a variety when there are parties at home. The trick in making this ghee rice lays mainly on the water and fire adjustment. Once these both are done properly, the rice should come out perfect. The rice is very fragrant with the whole garam masala and the clarified butter really boosts up the flavour of this dish.

This was one of the dishes that used to make in the budding stage of my cooking. And the first recipe in my old recipe book that I lost long ago. I remember the first time I made this, the rice came out caky I don’t remember why it happened so, may be I added too much of water. You could literally cut the ghee rice into slices. I prepared this for my husband (SEK) during the first visit to UK and I was still a student. SEK used to ask me frequently to learn at least few recipes from my mom as she is an excellent cook. I never bothered to. All I thought was I would write the recipe down, and follow as such and anything any everything will come out perfect. I never even cooked once before that first visit to SEK. First time when I landed here I took the recipe book to kitchen, started making ghee rice as that was the easiest at that time. I added onions with exact measure given by my mom and started to sauté it in low flame. After around 15 minutes, I started wondering how long the onions will take to get cooked because I remember my mom finishing the dish itself by half an hour! And I dint know how they will look once they are cooked. I waited for some more time and confused what to do, called my husband and asked him “Are the onions getting cooked or are they already cooked?” .SEK was surprised and he told me that was why I asked you to try it out from there before coming.

I had visited him quite few times during my studies before settling with him completely. And I think it s almost the same story every time I visit him. Apart from the ghee rice, I also had one signature curry at that time. Either it was chicken, mutton or prawns; it all had the same masala (Chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric) and the same taste. And another funny incident I still remember is that; at that time where SEK was under my brutal culinary experiments, one day I had prepared the chicken curry and the next day I made prawns. SEK asked me did u put prawns in yesterday’s chicken curry, as both taste exactly the same. :) It was only when I started living with him (July 2007) I started to take a bit of interest in cooking…A discovery of different ingredients and cuisines from across the world…..Cooking is not that simple… Ghee rice (Neychor)

Serves 8

Ingredients:
4 cups Basmati rice
8 cups water
1 cup onion sliced (1 medium size onion)
1 tsp cumin seeds
6 cardamom pods
6-8 cloves
6-8 small pieces of cinnamon sticks
3 bay leaves
½ cup clarified butter (Ghee)
salt to taste

Preparation
1. Wash rice and strain of all the water by placing the rice in colander.
2. Boil water in the kettle or a large cooking vessel.
3. In a large pan, set the heat on to high and ghee. When the ghee gets hot add onions and sauté until the onions just starts turning pink. At this stage add cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon and cumin seeds and sauté for a minute until the aroma of the spices starts coming out. At this stage add boiling water and salt to this.
4. Tip in the rice slowly and cook on high heat by keeping the lid open. At this stage you can see that rice lies in the bottom of the vessel and water is on top.
5. When you see that the rice has come on top and water has gone below, reduce the flame to low, and cook it covered until all the rice is cooked eventually. In between you can toss the bottom part of rice and bring to top so that the rice gets cooked evenly.

Serve hot with chicken curry/mutton curry, raita , pappadam and pickle. And whenever there is neychor at home, chicken fry is always there.

Notes:
1. Never wait until the onions get brown or golden as this will change the colour of rice completely.
2.Always ccok in hig flame until u see all the rice has come on top and water has gone down but still the rice is not cooked. At this stage lower the flame and cook until done.
3. You can also add 4-6 curry leaves along with the boiling water for extra taste and aroma.

4. For smaller quantity, just use half the amount of ingredients.

Orange Cake

After the great success of my lemon cake I thought I will give another go with the orange cake again. Yes, I have been trying to bake orange cake for sometime now. In fact I tried baking the orange cake twice before and it was an absolute failure and pledged that I would never try them again. I followed the same procedure and same recipe twice also exactly. I don’t really know where it went wrong as I did what was exactly shown. The name of the cake was ‘Delicate orange cake’. But when I baked it, it came out so hard that if somebody would get a hit with it, they might see million stars. I baked it after watching a cookery show on TV and was quite sad when it turned out bad for the second time and threw out the whole stuff. But again I think, cooking is all about trial and error. Keep trying and finally you will do it right. And the feeling when you get it right is very soothing.

Few days back again, I saw another orange cake being baked on the tv cookery show. I felt very tempted again. Few days after watching that show I baked the orange cake by mixing few recipes and finally the orange cake hit the goal. This is the first time that it came out good, Gosh. I was very pleased with the outcome. Orange cake is a very good alternative to plain cake with a light zesty smell and orange flavour. The cake is very light and soft and so I think it will be delicious even without the syrup and it will last for few days in the refrigerator. It tastes best at room temperature rather than warm. This cake was quite huge than expected since it gets good volume by whisking the eggs and sugar.

Orange cake
Serves 12- 14

Ingredients
250 gm plain flour
300 gm granulatedSugar
200 gm unsalted butter
2 tbs orange zest
4 large eggs
2 level tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
200 mls freshly squeezed orange juice+ 2 tbs sugar
2 tbsful icing sugar

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Butter and flour the sides of a 9” cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

2.Melt the butter gently in a saucepan and set aside.

3. Using a hand-held electric beater, whisk together the eggs, grated orange zest and sugar for a few minutes until light and slightly fluffy. Stir in the melted butter and sift in the flour and baking powder and salt. Fold it all together gently.

4. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin, smooth the surface and bake in the oven for 50 minutes or until golden or when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
5. Remove the cake from the tin and place it on a cake stand or separate dish.

6. Prick the cake all over throughout the bottom using a skewer. Stir in the 2 tbs of sugar in the orange juice and Pour it all over the cake while still hot.

7. Let the cake cool down completely. Sift icing sugar on top generously and serve in slices with tea or coffee.

TIPS and notes:
1. While adding flour to cake batter never over mix as this will result in heavy cake and like bread rather than spongy and light cake.
2. Use the correct measures.
3. Use the right oven temperature. Don’t use high temperature to bake cake as outer part will get brown quickly and inside will remain uncooked.
4. Instead of sprinkling the Icing sugar on top, u can also use orange icing to spread on top.
Use freshly squeezed orange juice for pouring on top. Don’t use store bought orange juice as the taste is very different. Don’t Use the blender for juicing orange as it turns out bitter after sometime. Recipe Source : Rachel Allen:Bake.

Pumpkin Curry (kumbalanga curry)

Pumpkin curry is a simple and delicious side combination when there is ‘meen mulaku chaar’ or spicy red fish curry and plain rice. Since it is Halloween time here pumpkins are readily available everywhere. Get a large pumpkin, peel off the skin and scoop out the seeds inside. Cut them into chunks and divide them into several freezer bags and pop them into freezer for later use. They really keep well in the freezer.

Pumpkin Curry (Kumbalanga curry)

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
½ kilo pumpkin (Kumbalam)
1 cup Grated coconut
3 large cloves of garlic
1 cup+1 ½ cup water
2 green chillies
1 tsp Red chilli powder(or depending upon taste)
½ tsp turmeric powder
salt- as required

For tempering:
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 twig of curry leaves
3 tbs Coconut oil

Preparation:
1. Peel the skin off the pumpkins and scoop out the seeds using a spoon. Cut them into medium sized chunks and cook it covered along with salt, 1 ½ cup water, green chillies and garlic.
2. Grind coconut to smooth paste with 1 cup of water, red chilli powder and turmeric.
3. when the pumpkins are completely cooked and soft, mash it with the potato masher. There should be no lumps.
4. Add the ground coconut and just cook it for 2 more minutes or until the raw smell of chilli powder has disappeared. Don't cook for long as the coconut will start to curdle.

For tempering:
Add oil in a kadai or pan. When it is smoking hot, add mustard seeds. When they start to splutter, Add curry leaves and let them splutter too. Add this to the pumpkin and mix well.
Serve hot with plain boiled rice.